Sort Through The Yamaha Team PR And It Turns Out A GSX-R1000 Won Everything In Superbike At Winton In Australia

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Read this press release carefully and the story becomes clear (this is also known as skillfully putting the best possible face on what results the team did get):

"Queenslander Robbie Baird celebrated his debut in the 2001 Shell Advance Australian Supersport Championship by finishing with a third and first from today's two Supersport races at round two of the championship held at the Winton Raceway in central Victoria. The overall round win went to Brendan Clarke who took a win and a second, to add his point winning pole position during qualifying. Clarke edged out Baird who finished the day second overall. He now lies fifth overall in the championship with 41 points, trailing current leader Josh Brookes who has a total of 80 points.

"As opposed to recent race meetings around Australia, Winton stayed dry for the complete weekend, offering the riders ample opportunity to get their bikes dialed in and provide spectators with some close hard fought action. The opening 14-lap Supersport race was no exception with five riders, including Baird, fighting it out over second place as they chased race leader Clarke. At race end Baird crossed the line less than two tenths of a second behind Scott Charlton to finish third.

"Race two saw Baird mixing it with the lead group once again and he was able to take full advantage when Clarke and Charlton tangled and ran wide allowing the Yamaha rider through. He then chased down race leader Daniel Stauffer and passed him to lead the final eight laps of the race, finishing 6.547 seconds clear of Clarke at the flag, with points leader Josh Brookes third.

"'After missing the opening round in Perth, I really did need a win to gain as many points as possible and try and pull back the leaders and that's what we did,' said Baird. ‘Things went well all weekend. We qualified well and had a good run in both races. The second race was pretty close, but I was able to take advantage of the others battling away with each other and was able to pull away. The Yamaha R6 proved that it is still the bike to beat and the Dunlops worked well to give us a great package.'

"While Baird was dicing for podium placings in the Supersport class, the Radar's Team Yamaha pair of Jamie Stauffer and Craig Coxhell were battling it out in three fiercely contested Superbike races. Defending champion Shawn Giles (Suzuki) made it a clean sweep for the weekend, taking pole, three wins and a new Pro-Superbike lap record. Stauffer finished the day fourth overall after finishing with a second, fourth and sixth, while Coxhell was fifth overall, with two fifths and a third. Coxhell currently lies third in the championship points table with 75, behind leader Giles (129) and Bikebiz Yamaha rider Damien Cudlin (88).

"'The results may have not been exactly what I wanted, but I was able to score a good amount of points that keep us well in the championship hunt,' said Coxhell. ‘Shawn (Giles) rode extremely well here and it came down to a battle between the rest of us. My biggest problem all weekend was that I was getting arm pump in my right arm. It plagued me during qualifying and in the latter stages of the races. I'm not sure what has brought it on, but there are a few heavy braking points around the track which may have caused it. It was frustrating as I was able to run with the pace in the early laps, but then faded. The results did get better as the day went on and it was great to grab third in the final race.'

"'Things were looking good for a podium result until the last race,' said Stauffer. ‘I was in line to finish second overall, but the sixth place finish in the final race spoiled any chances of that. The Yamaha R1 ran well all weekend, but I was having trouble with wheelspin and that in turn was shortening the life of the tyres in each race. There are a few things that we are still working on to get the set up right to suit my style and we're getting closer to that. Each race was pretty tight and it really depended as to how good a run you were lucky enough to get.'

"With the team not making the trip across to Wanneroo for the opening round of the championship, team manager Dave `Radar' Cullen was more than pleased with the results they were able to score in what was their debut in this years Championship. ‘I'm very happy with the result in the Supersport race with the win by Robbie showing that the Yamaha R1 is still the benchmark in the class,' said Radar. ‘Both Craig and Jamie rode well in the Superbike class and came home with some very competitive results. Each of them had their problems, but I was happy with the teams performance overall.'